Category: Articles & Asides

This is one of the saddest situations I know for any dog.  To be tied up, or chained, outside, all year round.  Not just freezing Winters but baking Summers also. I live the pain of animals.  But particularly dogs.  Why?  Because they are the embodiment of love.  They bring it to us humans, unconditionally and…

According to George Monbiot of the Guardian, “…the deepest and most wide-ranging report yet conducted into something called RSPCA Assured. When you see meat or fish or eggs in the supermarket, you might find the RSPCA’s stamp of approval on the packaging, telling you that the animals they came from benefited from “high welfare” farming.…

I think the media is very manipulating today. Owned by moguls and oligarchs we are presented with a myriad of distractions and fabrications that get inside our heads and fire up reactive emotions. It amazes me how many adverts I get on my FB timeline asking me for money for the suffering of the innocent.…

This poem is by Max Ehrmann who was an American writer, poet, and attorney from Terre Haute, Indiana, not so widely known for this particular 1927 prose poem “Desiderata”, as there have been a number of false claims to it’s authorship and even designated as “anonymous”. He often wrote on spiritual themes. For me this…

A radio drama, then a play, then a film, Under Milk Wood is a fictional story inviting the audience to listen to the innermost dreams and thoughts of a fictitious Welsh town called Llareggub, (buggerall spelt backwards). Better seen or listened to than read IMO. But these few words touched me as they are quite…

Blaise Pascal said, “Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.” Why do innocent people and small children so often suffer grave injustice, pain and sickness?  A religious person might say something completely irrational and meaningless like “Only God knows his reasons”, or “God works in mysterious…

Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.” Since the inception of Facebook many have touted similar sentiments in posts and info grams with variations that detract from the “tragedy” and replace it with “blame”. I…

For my dear friend who died on 29th December 2021 and whose stone setting is tomorrow. I searched for something to say worthy of your presence in my life and in the world, and in the end resorted to the words of  Kahlil Gibran.  He pretty much sums up what I want to say: “In…

This method of gaining independence without the so-called permission of Westminster seems easy on the face of it, and the obvious way to go.  So why hasn’t it been done?  There appears to be a contradiction between the desire for independence and bringing it about.  It is true that Scotland is very divided.  A referendum…

I love Scotland, my father was half Scottish.  When I first came here in the early ’80s I knew deep inside that this was my home, my spiritual home, then in 1988 I made it my physical home.  I hold no loyalty to England at all.  The English Government is a disgrace.  They are greedy,…

You know, part of me was hoping that I would for the first time in my life have a million pounds. Only once before did I ever imagine having that much money. I wrestled with the loss of my brother, who was the most special person in my life, but, at the same time hoped…

Wealthy companies who buy land on the pretext of carbon offset clearly have no interest in helping the people of Scotland either socially or in improving the natural biodiversity. Perhaps they will plant trees but will most certainly take full advantage of available grants, despite their own wealth and ability to absorb the relatively small…

I wrestle with social injustice, unresolved inequity is anathema to me, especially when there is a solution. The plight of society more than a decade into a downward spiral towards poverty, homelessness, mental disorder and crime-to-survive when we have the answer, is like tying a person to a chair in front of a table of…

After nearly 30 minutes hanging on… “Hello.  My name is Poylzhqa.    how can I help you today?” Good morning.  I would like to stop one of the add-ons on my account please. Yes of course, I can certainly assist you with that.  So just that I am understanding.  You wish to close your account No! …

One of the most poignant reminders of World War I is the moving poem, ‘In Flanders Fields’, written by John McCrae, a Canadian army doctor, following the death of his close friend and compatriot Lieutenant Alexis Helmer. Helmer was killed on 2 May 1915 when a shell exploded during the second German gas attack. In…

Donald Trump’s golf course in Balmedie, Aberdeenshire, Scotland completed in 2012 recently came to light again. Various media channels are hell-bent on finding anything they can to disparage him, and they don’t have to look very hard. At the time he was accused of destroying the dunes and the natural habitat they provided for wildlife,…

Recently I watched an extremely well-made film that delivered a reality that was both shocking and hopeless. There were one or two fleeting graphic clips that left me almost broken! I have recovered now. And since, discovered that certain reports within the film lacked depth and therefore left any signs of hope well hidden. It…

It was my impression that the take up of renewable energy, sun, wind and water, would finally bring cheap energy to a population caught in an upward spiral of rising costs for a growing energy demand. Following the first ever wind farm in New Hampshire in 1980 By 2014, 214,000 wjnd turbines were operating providing…

For the past year or so I have been saving every piece of single-use-plastic packaging from food I bought from Tesco.   I have a substantial collection. Part of Tesco’s Mission Statement reads, “Every little help makes a big difference – it’s the value we live by to ensure we serve our customers, colleagues and their…

The following excerpt is from a longer document submitted by my father in 1976 called “Should Creative Directors Be Middle Class?  This extract includes guidelines for said Creative Directors, but in my view, may be applicable to any professional who wants to present themselves as such, and remains highly appropriate today, over thirty years after…

I can’t remember where I found this great story.  It is so “zen” to me, and laced with a little humour.  I think it puts things in order.  I really want to share it because this sort of stuff is invaluable.

There is no real mystery to these tips.  Most are common sense combined with a positive outlook.  However, it’s always useful to state these things as sometimes the obvious hides in plain sight!